Freedom of speech

On 28 November 2013, Google received an ex-parte interim order from an
Irish court to block the publication of a photo image of convicted
solicitor Thomas Byrne which appears as a search result alongside the
profile of Irish Senator Thomas Byrne, a solicitor himself.

Google considers it cannot be held liable for what comes up in its
search results, as it only creates a snapshot of content that is
elsewhere on the internet and this so-called “caching defence” is
covered by the EU’s e-commerce directive law, allowing ISPs to not be
held liable for being a mere conduit for information.

However, Google is no longer a mere provider of search results
reflecting the content of websites elsewhere on the internet as it
currently offers a range of products and services that brin

The UK government continues its endeavours to censor the Internet and
has succeeded in convincing search engines to filter search term results
“associated” with child abuse images within its child abuse policy,
despite the lack of proof of any efficiency of such measures, the rinks
to abuses and the dangers to the citizens’ democratic rights.

The Russian security authorities are taking new measures to expand their
surveillance of the Internet by requiring ISPs to store all traffic
temporarily and make it available to the Federal Security Service (FSB).

According to an article published by newspaper Kommersant, Vympelkom,
the owner of the mobile network Beeline, made a complaint to the
Ministry of Communications about the new decree made public on the 21
October 2013, developed by the Ministry together with the FSB, which
will require ISPs to monitor all Internet traffic, including IP
addresses, telephone numbers, and usernames.

The decree, which is to come into force in July 2014, also requires that
ISPs store the traffic for 12 hours after collection and grant the
security services exclusive access to the data.

On 2 October 2013, EDRi signed a joint letter together with other civil
society groups and organisations (CCIA, EDIMa, EuroISPA, EEA and EMOTA)
asking the competent EU institutions to act on the amendments to the
draft Regulations on Market Surveillance and Product Safety that could
have far-reaching consequences affecting online commerce and Internet
intermediaries freedom.

The letter asks not to extend the scope of the Regulation to cover
intellectual property, as that would undermine legal certainty and put
an excessive burden on businesses, particularly SMEs.

Also, the text points to a number of amendments that would undermine the
principle of technology neutrality and would specifically burden
e-commerce by singling out ‘online’ trade and seeking to impose
far-reac

On 10 October 2013, the winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of
Thought will be announced by the Conference of Presidents, as chosen by
members of three committees of the European Parliament (AFET, DEVE and
DROI).

The Prize, bearing the name of the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei
Sakharov, has been awarded every year since 1988 to individuals and
organisations for efforts in defending human rights and freedom of
expression.

Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor
and whistleblower, has been nominated and shortlisted for the award, for
his exposure of the vast state sponsored surveillance programme, known
as PRISM, affecting millions of people around the world, including
foreign presidents, companies and even EU institutions.

Eric Snowden, the whistleblower behind the revelations regarding the
electronic surveillance made by NSA, GCHQ and other intelligent
services, has been nominated for the 2013 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of
Thought by the Greens/EFA group and GUE/NGL group.

The seven nominees for the 2013 Sakharov Prize were presented at a joint
meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Development committees and the Human
Rights Subcommittee on 16 September 2013.

Russia has operated since 2012 a national blacklist of sites that
allegedly do not comply with the law. The website blacklist currently
includes hundreds of websites, from those promoting drug taking and
suicide to those offering child pornography, but also sites that
infringe the anti-piracy law. All these websites are to be blocked at
the ISP level. Moreover, the legislation allows the blocking of sites
that only link to infringing content if they do not take action within
72 hours of a complaint.

On 19 September 2013, telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor said that Facebook
has been provisionally put on a list of banned Internet sites and asked
to remove controversial content within three days.